Understanding Structure Induced Functional Connectivity in Brain using EEG

Phase synchronization (PS) analysis has been exhibited as an effective method to understand visually evoked functional connectivity of brain responses for basic structures. It is believed that the brain response changes with the perception of the object of an individual. Different studies have been conducted on healthy subjects to see how the brain creates a perception for dots forming a line (called as structure) as compared to random dots (called as non-structure). In this paper, we investigate how the Phase locking value (PLV) which quantifies the functional connectivity, changes for the structures and non-structures using multi-channel neural signals such as electroencephalography (EEG). The results reveal high synchronization or enhanced connectivity between the brain regions during structure compared to non-structure. These results are accompanied by the Network Measures Analysis. The low Clustering Coefficient (CC) and high Path Length (PL) in the alpha band for non-structure trials indicate loss of small-world properties. Also, minimum spanning tree (MST) network measures such as Leaf Fraction (LF) and Tree Hierarchy (TH) showed decreased value for non-structure trials symbolizing weak integration for random dots as compared to grouping perception of dots.